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Seattle’s Pike Place Market first opened in 1907 with humble beginnings as a group of farmers’ carts at 1st and Pike. In the early 1900’s, thousands of farmers, including many Italian, German, Chinese, Japanese and Filipinos supplied produce to the city from far and wide. The public market at Pike Place was revolutionary in …

The Suzanne Hittman Collection of the Pike Place Market is a valuable resource for researchers and historians seeking information about the principle figures behind Pike Place Market and its business history. As a child, Suzanne lived in south Seattle with her grandparents, Giuseppe (Joe) and Assunta Desimone. Her grandfather, Joe …

The Peter Steinbrueck Pike Place Market Collection includes architectural plans, posters, newspaper articles and ephemera related to the Market Initiative and other efforts undertaken by the Friends of the Market to protect Pike Place Market and its unique character and history.

Werner Lenggenhager (1899-1988) was a Swiss immigrant, a Boeing employee, and a hobby photographer who made it his life's work to create a photographic record of Seattle's architecture, monuments, and scenery. Over the course of his life, Lenggenhager gave nearly 30,000 prints of his photographs to The Seattle Public Library. …

The Seattle Postcard Collection highlights small pieces of Seattle history by documenting iconic Seattle buildings, attractions and events from the early 1900s to the 1960s. Some postcards include corresponce from Seattle residents and visitors discussing their time in Seattle and other personal affairs. Over 140 postcards have been …

About the collections

The Seattle Public Library's digital collections include digitized materials selected from the Library's special collections. Use the search box at the top of this page to search across all collections, or click the links on the left to view individual collections.